Battle of Tudela

The Battle of Tudela occurred on 23 November 1808 during the Peninsular War. The battle was a major French victory over their Spanish adversaries, allowing for Napoleon I's armies to continue their advance beyond the Ebro River and recapture Madrid on 1 December 1808.

Background
Following the 13 October 1808 Battle of Pancorbo, Emperor Napoleon I began an offensive across the Ebro River on 6 November, with French forces all along the front springing to action and catching the Spanish off-guard and unprepared. All of the Spanish forces were ultimately forced to fall back, some after fierce resistance, and Emperor Napoleon harangued his commanders to move faster to suit his high-speed plans. The rugged hills hindered the French army's advance, but Napoleon decided to have his pincers converge on Tudela, the site of one of the last bridges over the Ebro still open to the Spanish. Marshal Jean Lannes, one of Napoleon's fastest and most aggressive commanders, arrived at Tudela on 23 November with 31,000 troops, finding that the Spanish generals Francisco Javier Castanos and Jose Rebolledo de Palafox and their army of 33,000 troops had only just beaten him there.

Battle
The Spanish had occupied the town and began to cross the river, hoping to reach safety across the Ebro. Due to Castanos' illness, the less-able Jose de Palafox was in command of the Spanish. As the exhausted Spanish army had just arrived from their rapid retreat, Palafox neglected to take advantage of Tudela's advantageous terrain, and the two armies clashed on the early morning of 23 November 1808. The Spanish held off Lannes' advance guard with much difficulty, but Lannes' suspicions about the Spanish army's weakness was proven correct, and he sent his army against the beleaguered Spanish army and planned to destroy them. Antoine Morlot's French division attacked the heights at the Spanish center in a conventionally reckless maneuver, but the Spanish positions were too far apart to support each other, allowing for Morlot's men to take the heights. As the rest of Lannes' corps arrived, he threw them against the unprepared Spanish lines, forcing them to retreat. The Spanish reinforcements were separated from the embattled Spanish army by the French, and Marshal Michel Ney and his corps marched towards the rear of the Spanish army to cut off their escape. However, Ney's corps was unable to move quickly enough to rendezvous with Lannes and participate in the battle, and the shattered Spanish army was able to disengage and fall back. The French inflicted over 4,000 losses on the Spanish with fewer than 700 losses, but the French failed to score a decisive victory.

Aftermath
The battles of Pancorbo and Tudela were French victories, but Napoleon had failed to achieve total victories, as the Spanish forces in both battles succeeded in escaping to fight another day. Within three weeks, Napoleon's armies had turned the tide of the war, and he proceeded to march on the Spanish capital of Madrid.